How N2.4b LTV equipment scandal rocks Tinubu, governor Ambode 2019 second term ambition

Facts are beginning to emerge on why All Progressives Congress (APC), national leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu is spitting fire and insisting to stop Governor of Lagos State, Akinwumi Ambode second term bid in the 2019 general elections.

It could be recalled that Asiwaju Tinubu, the former two term governor of the state sprang a big surprise in 2014 by declaring to the teeming Lagosians that Ambode was his preferred candidate for the party governorship election.

However, the then governor Babatunde Raji Fashola, SAN, who was flattened by Tinubu pronouncement without due consultations vehemently rebuffed the national leader, but was later succumbed to the pressure and power that be within and outside the state to yield to his godfather choice.

Even, in July 2014, when Asiwaju Tinubu formally informed the then governor Fashola of his intention to back Ambode, a certified chattered accountant from Epe, in the presence of Oba of Lagos, Rilwan Akinolu, a retired Assistant Inspector General of Police, The dumb-folded Fashola, according to reliable sources, was said to have left the meeting without uttering a word.

However, barely few months to the completion of his first tenure, the tide has changed as governor Ambode expectation of being anointed for second term is on the rock, a strategy purportedly plotted by his godfather and financial.

As in a proverbial saying that ‘he that plays the pipers, dictates the tune’, this can be said to be the game play currently holding in Lagos as Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has plotted to back another candidate for the position of the state governor, and hereby dropped his one time favourite candidate, Akinwuni Ambode whose first tenure will elapse in few months.

However, Asiwaju Tinubu rejection of his ones forced Ambode on the party could be attributed to the award of contract estimated N2.4b worth of equipment for the efficiency of Lagos Television (LTV), and many others sins which did not augur well with the former governor.

Since the day of his inauguration in 2015 till few weeks ago, Ambode, like Fashola, takes instructions on every developmental policy from Tinubu. Among such was the appointment of all the 40-member state executive council who were singlehandedly handpicked by Tinubu and handed to Ambode to swear in.

Other standby order was the appointment of 57 council chairmen, board members of various commissions and parastatals, including permanent secretaries and directors and amongst.

Similarly, all major contracts approved by the State Executive Council (SEC), were drafted by consultants working for Tinubu via Ambode to append his signature. It was believed that no road was awarded in Lagos State without the consent and blessing of Tinubu, whose had successfully moved the seat of government to his house at 1, Bourdillion Road, Ikoyi.

The governor emeritus had on several occasions overruled contracts awarded by Ambode without his blessing. Among them was the procurement of an OB van worth N1.5b and cameras worth N900m for Lagos State owned Television station, LTV aimed towards improving its services and coverage.

According to a reliable source within the camp of the APC leader, who confided that when Tinubu got the hint of the contract through a top director in LTV (name withheld), he was said to have put a phone call to Ambode that the contract be suspended pending further instruction from him.

But desperation from Ambode to break himself from the shackles of his godfather was backed by a cabal led by Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Steve Ayorinde, who is now in-charge of Ministry of Art and Tourism, persuaded the governor to ignore Tinubu, a decision which he indeed yielded to and proceeded to award the contract against the instruction of Tinubu.

Like usual African godfather, Tinubu who was not pleased that his order was rebuffed by the governor, overlooked the contract which he had already penciled down to be executed by an Ondo man who served under his administration when he was governor of the state.

It was learnt that the contractor, a Lebanese hired by the Steve Ayorinde led cabal of the information unit of the state government agreed the sum of two billion four hundred million naira (N2.4billion), to purchase OB van, cameras and other gadgets from a British Firm called Excellence Transmission Inc Limited, Manchester, United Kingdom.

The 50% of the said contract agreement was paid upfront, while the remaining was to be paid six months after payment of first instalment, so that the OB van, according to the agreement paper signed between Excellence Transmission Inc Limited and LTV, was expected to be released upon completion of payment by Lagos State government.

Without proper consultation from his godfather, out of the N2.4b, a sum of N1.2b, representing 50% of the contract sum was released on the order of Ambode, but while 50% of the cameras were released, the OB van was not released until full payment was made as agreed.

Two years after the contract was awarded, the OB van, was yet to be delivered while the cameras and transmission equipments not worth more than N50m supplied fell below the expectation, failed due process as well as quality and assurance control integrity test.

Checks on the cameras, upon delivery were confirmed to fall below the required standard, contradicting the sole purpose of which the cameras were been bought for.

Even as confided by our source,it was gathered that the existing cameras of the station were said to be of higher quality than those supplied from England. Two directors from the station, loyal and backed by Tinubu were said to have refused to sign the due process paper to confirming that the cameras were delivered as agreed in the contract paper.

The actions of these two directors of LTV, whose name was concealed by this writer, were said to have angered the governor who ordered their transfer out of LTV, while new directors were posted to the station to sign the due process paper for the cameras currently rusting away at the station at Agindigbi, Ikeja.

As if the tension had died down, three months after the assumption of the two directors posted to cover the fraud, another set of senior staff jointly wrote a memo to Steve Ayorinde, asking for the whereabout of the remaining cameras and when the OB van would be delivered.

Ayorinde, according to insiders, rushed to the governor to show him the memo containing some scratching remarks “Sir, the rest of the cameras were ought to have been delivered two months ago with our OB van, but despite several letters written, no response from Mr. Delkash Farez, the Lebanese hired by your office to purchase the gadgets on behalf of our station,” a paragraph in the memo from five top staff of LTV sighted by this writer to Ayorinde reads.

Upon reading the memo, the embattle governor Ambode frowned and quoted “What an effrontery, who gave the memo-writing LTV staff the audacity to question my action.” But upon investigation by his cabal, the LTV staff were said to have enjoyed the support of Tinubu, this prompted the governor to again transfer them out of the station.

When the agitation refused to die down, and rumours against Ayorinde led cabal continued to boom like wave of ocean within Alausa, governor Ambode redeployed his image maker to Ministry Art and Tourism, while the scandal about the OB van and camera contract scam reduced, but failed to submerge as envisaged by the governor.

Meanwhile, Over one billion naira of tax payers’ money went down the drain as Tinubu queried, but the interest of the masses may not be the cause of Tinubu’s anger if not for the fact that the contract was awarded against his wish, yet OB van was not supplied and substandard cameras were delivered.

Acting on a petition secretly forwarded to him by some concerned staff of LTV recently, Tinubu asked Ambode to explain the situation of the OB van which he has planned to use at his owned private broadcast station, Television Continental (TVC) for LIVE transmission of political rallies for commercial purpose ahead of 2019 general elections.

An angry Tinubu, without mincing word, was said to have listed several blunders and steps Ambode had taken to undermine his authority such as the termination of refuse collector contract to party chieftains by hiring the obviously in-efficient VisionScape Concept to the LTV contract scam.

The embittered Tinubu warned the governor to provide the OB van before July 2018 or forget his 2019 second term ambition, which he failed to accomplish.

In his defence to Tinubu threat, governor Ambode explained that the Lebanese hired to represent LTV before the British Company manufacturing the OB van has disappeared and all efforts so far through the Lebanese embassy in Lagos and Abuja to locate him has proven impossible, an excuse that failed to convince Asiwaju, who remained adamant to his plan.

In another development, Ambode, on the advice of his think-tank cabal led by Ayorinde, in a move to outsmart their godfather, concluded to push Tinubu into defence, through the recent petition written by a former ally of Tinubu, Mr. Tunji Apara to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission over the activities of a tax consulting firm, Alpha and Beta, said to be owned by the former Lagos State Governor in the state since 2003.

Nonetheless, the writer gathered from very reliable sources that the OB van was purposely designed to fail by the governor and his boys while the Lebanese was instructed by Ayorinde to disappear from Nigeria until the dust is settled.

According to the contract paper between LTV and Excellence Transmission Inc Limited, the payment must be completed within six months, failure which the company would entertain offers from other interested buyers. And 15 months after 50% payment (65% higher than the value price) was released by government and money transferred to UK, LTV failed to pay the balance.

A check at the 2017 appropriation of Lagos State however showed that the balance of the OB van whose initial deposit was captured in 2016 budget, has been released clandestinely without following due process. And to cover up the fraud, 11 staff of LTV have either been redeployed or retired from the service of Lagos State government.